PEDIATRICS Vol. 97 No. 1 January 1996, pp. 78
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COLLATERAL DAMAGE

Alain Joffe MD

As the welfare-reform debate begins to boil, the place to begin is with an elemental fact: no child in America asked to be here.

Each was summoned into existence by the acts of adults. And no child is going to be spiritually improved by being collateral damage in a bombardment of severities targeted at adults who may or may not deserve more severe treatment from the welfare system.

Phil Gramm says welfare recipients are people "in the wagon" who ought to get out and "help the rest of us pull." Well. Of the 14 million people receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children, 9 million are children. Even if we get all these free-riders into wee harnesses, the wagon will not move much faster.